Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
If this were so, we would find evidence in the N.T.
But we find none.
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That's where you are mistaken.
Acts 14:23 says elders were appointed in every church:
"And when they had ordained them
elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed."
Titus 1:5 says elders were appointed in every city:
For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and
ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:
Compare these two verses and we don't need to be a rocket scientist to see that the apostle organized the churches as one church per city, no doubt under the practical guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the apostle did not implement a "good idea at the time" according to his taste and preference, but something revealed to Him by the Holy Spirit.
If this was not so, it would somewhat resemble the situation today of multiple churches according to taste and preference - the early church had just as many opinions, preferences and disagreements as we do today, yet never separate into multiple churches in the city. Why? Because despite their divisions, that Paul mentions (1 Cor 11:18), they never used them as an excuse to split, and Paul discourages them from doing so (1 Cor 1:10).
If this was done haphazardly or the church organization was down to individual preference of members, we would not see such uniformity and conformity - we would see a few churches in this city, a few churches in that city, we might even see a church in the ocean or maybe they had a "boat church" - church on a boat. Because of the schism between Jew and Gentile, we should see at least a Jewish Church and a Gentile Church within the one city - but there was no such thing. The disciples must have traveled together, by boat, and this would take time. They must have had "two or three" fellowship together, but no where do they mention anything of a "boat church".
The consistency of the Bible points to the ordered arrangement of churches by elders overseeing one church per city. Couple this with the fact that the Bible no where uses the plural churches in reference to the city, proves there was one church per city. It was Paul's letter to the "church in Corinth" not the "churches in Corinth". For practical reasons there would have been multiple house assemblies in each city, but these individual assemblies are never referred to as different churches.